Engaging New Travel and Geography Books - plus Giveaway!

World geography and world cultures is the focus of our social studies curriculum, so I am delighted to be featured as the penultimate stop on a Blog Tour for the new titles recently released by Lonely Planet Kids (an imprint from Lonely Planet, the world’s leading travel publisher) and coordinated by Mother Daughter Book Reviews.

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About The Travel Book

Title: Lonely Planet Kids - The Travel Book: A journey through every country in the world | Publication Date: September, 2015 | Publisher: Lonely Planet Kids | Pages: 212 | Recommended Ages: 8+

Description: Where can you climb a giant tower of sticky buns? What is a bokikokiko? Discover the answer to these questions and hundreds more with Lonely Planet Kids The Travel Book: A Journey through Every Country in the World the new, kid-friendly (ages 8+) version of Lonely Planet’s best-selling The Travel Book. In Lonely Planet Kids The Travel Book, every country from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe gets a dedicated page spread packed with amazing facts on animals, culture, sports, food and much more, bringing the world to life with eye-popping photography and illustrations.

My Review: This book has been a huge hit in my third grade classroom! Each country's page is packed with entertaining and engaging country facts supplemented with photographs and catchy illustrations. A set of basic facts is provided for each country in the "playing cards" section, allowing kids to easily compare countries to each other.

The book serves many purposes and audiences. Kids can dip in to any page and find interesting facts or cool illustrations. Kids interested in a specific country can use the index or table of contents to jump right to that country's page. (One nit-pick: the countries are organized by continent and then roughly geographically, northwest to southeast-ish. Alphabetically would have made navigation a lot more intuitive.)

The Travel Book even works well as a straight-forward read. Just to demonstrate its staying power - one of my students is on day three of reading through the entire book during choice reading time. He can usually only make it a country or two before he finds something so fascinating that he needs to bring the book over to share. This is a great book for curious kids and a great addition to my classroom library!

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About Adventures Around the Globe

Title: Adventures Around the Globe | Publication Date: September, 2015 | Publisher: Lonely Planet Kids | Pages: 60 + 12 pages of stickers | Recommended Ages: 4+


Description: Come and explore some of the world’s most amazing places with Adventures Around the Globe, a special edition sticker atlas from the ‘Adventures in…’ activity book series. Young explorers (ages 4+) will discover fun facts, interact with maps and puzzles, decorate real-life locations with over 250 reusable stickers – even create a fold-out 3D model of the globe.

My Review: This book is a lot more fluff and a lot fewer facts than The Travel Book, but it is also pitched at a younger crowd. In addition to the pages of (reusable!) stickers, there are some other interactive pages including coloring, mazes, spot the differences, etc. This one is more of an activity book and less of a resource.

My only concern about this book is that the brief nature of its approach and activities leads to a focus on overgeneralizations - spotting the difference using Japanese geishas or turning India's holiest river into a coloring book page.

Overall, though, I think younger kids would find this book appealing and engaging, at least until they have rearranging the stickers a few too many times. This could be a great book to pull out during a long car or plane trip.

Disclosure: I received print copies of both these books for my classroom in return for an honest review.

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About Lonely Planet Kids

From the world’s leading travel media company comes Lonely Planet Kids, a children’s imprint that brings the world to life for young explorers everywhere. We’re kickstarting the travel bug and showing kids just how amazing our planet can be.

Lonely Planet Kids aims to enhance learning, interaction and appreciation for the planet’s rich diversity of people, places and cultures. Immersive, engaging and educational, the new Lonely Planet Kids books continue to explore the world and inspire a whole new generation of travelers as only Lonely Planet can.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

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Blog Tour Giveaway

Prize: One winner will receive a $25 Amazon gift card or $25 PayPal cash prize, winner's choice

Giveaway ends: November 8, 11:59 pm, 2015

Open to: Internationally

How to enter: Please enter using the Rafflecopter widget below.

Terms and Conditions: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. A winner will be randomly drawn through the Rafflecopter widget and will be contacted by email within 48 hours after the giveaway ends. The winner will then have 72 hours to respond. If the winner does not respond within 72 hours, a new draw will take place for a new winner. Odds of winning will vary depending on the number of eligible entries received. This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook. This giveaway is sponsored by Lonely Planet Kids and is hosted and managed by Renee from Mother Daughter Book Reviews. If you have any additional questions – feel free to send and email to Renee(at)MotherDaughterBookReviews(dot)com.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Lonely Planet Kids Blog Tour Schedule

October 15

Mother Daughter Book Reviews (Launch & Giveaway)

Cherry Mischievous (Spotlight: Adventures Around the Globe)

Rockin' Book Reviews (Review: How to be an International Spy)

October 16

Domestic Chanteuse (Spotlight: The Travel Book)

Reading Authors (Review: You Rule!)

October 17

Adalinc to Life (Review: Adventures Around the Globe)

Geo Librarian (Review: The Travel Book)

October 18

2ReadBook (Review: How to be an International Spy)

Tea Time and Books (Spotlight: You Rule!)

October 19

The Blended Blog (Review: The Travel Book)

Icefairy's Treasure Chest (Review: Adventures Around the Globe)

October 20

Bookworm for Kids (Review: You Rule!)

Mami Tales (Review: How to be an International Spy)

October 21

Here's the Story (Review: The Travel Book)

Alwaysjoart (Review: You Rule!)

October 22

Tina the Bookworm (Review: How to be an International Spy)

Sunshine Girl Blog (Spotlight: Adventures Around the Globe)

October 23

Fuonlyknew (Review: Adventures Around the Globe)

Books for Books (Review: You Rule!)

October 24

Jemima Pett (Review: The Travel Book)

October 25

Published Bestsellers (Spotlight: How to be an International Spy)

October 26

K&A's Children's Book Reviews (Review: Adventures Around the Globe)

Christy's Cozy Corners (Review: The Travel Book)

October 27

My Soul Called Life (Review: How to be an International Spy)

I Read What You Write (Review: You Rule!)

October 28

Blooming Brilliant (Review: Adventures Around the Globe)

Writer With Wanderlust (Review: The Travel Book)

October 29

View From the Birdhouse (Spotlight: The Travel Book)

Kevin Gerard, Author of Diego's Dragon (Review: You Rule!)

October 30

P is for Preschooler (Review: Adventures Around the Globe)

The Logonauts (Review: The Travel Book and Adventures Around the Globe)

October 31

Oh My Bookness (Review: How to be an International Spy)

New Books from Kids Can Press

Kids Can Press is the largest Canadian-owned children’s publisher in the world and publishes a diverse catalog of books, many of which focus on international or worldwide stories. They have many interesting new titles coming out today, and this post provides quick introduction of some of them.

 

My Family Tree and Me (April 1, 2015) by Dušan Petričić (ARC provided via Net Galley).

This is a great concept book on genealogy and the family tree. The book reads from both sides, with one side, front-to-middle, telling the story of the boy's father's family, while the other side, back-to-middle, telling the story of the boy's mother's family. There is also a clever conceit of each pair of parents having a picture hanging up of the previous generation. The text itself is completely generic (with the exception of the fact that the boy has aunts and uncles on both sides) and could be used with kids to put together their own versions. I also appreciate how this book celebrates multiracial and diverse families.

Me, Too! (April 1, 2015) by Annika Dunklee and illustrated by Lori Joy Smith (ARC provided via Net Galley).

This friendship tale addresses a classic problem: two great friends and the uncomfortable arrival of a third. The unique appeal of this book is in its embrace of diverse characters: Lillemor is from Sweden and speaks English and Swedish, while Annie speaks English and Oinky Boinky (her own invented language). Both enjoy learning about each other's backgrounds and differences. But when new girl Lilianne arrives from France, Annie immediately goes on high alert. Will her friendship with Lillemor survive?

Look Where We Live! A first book of community building (April 1, 2015) by Scot Ritchie (ARC provided via Net Galley).

This charming little book highlights the different people, buildings, and structures that make a community. The overall story is about a community fundraiser for the library. Geared towards younger students, perhaps K or first grade, each two-page spread provides about two paragraphs about different locations around the community, as well as an additional paragraph with another fact or aside. This book is very simple, but it would be a great book for introducing kids to the different roles that people play within a community or for starting a longer conversation about communities.

School Days Around the World (April 1, 2015) by Margriet Ruurs and illustrated by Alice Feagan (ARC provided via Net Galley).

Margriet Ruurs continues her around the world series with School Days Around the World . (Read my review of Families Around the World here.) The book profiles 14 different children from 13 different countries across 6 continents. Each two-page spread describes a different school from the point-of-view of the student, often focusing on an interesting activity as well as overall subjects.

This book gives kids a brief peek into schools and countries different from their own and provides a great foundation for comparing and contrasting. My main issue with the book is how abbreviated the descriptions are and how little actual information is presented about each school. This would be a great book to raise a lot of questions about schools around the world, but it is not necessarily the book to answer them.

Teaching about the Geography of Food

Searching for an idea for a final project related to our geography unit, I started brainstorming about things that are global in nature or have a geography component to them. This led me to think about the geography of food. While Farmers' Markets and "Eat Local" campaigns have raised our collective awareness about our food and where it comes from, many students still know very little about this topic, so I designed a research project based on food.

Our project is based upon the How Did That Get Here? series of nonfiction picture books. Each book is titled The Biography of ... and features a different food or agricultural product. One library in our public library system hosts a collection of about 15 different titles for students to choose from. Book selecting day is always highly anticipated, and students gain additional 'buy-in' by selecting their favorite item to study.

I also use this series to reinforce the basics of nonfiction text structure, including modeling about how to use the Table of Contents, Index, and Glossary. The books follow a generally similar format and chapter outline, making it easy for me to help guide students to the necessary chapters.

The series is written at a later elementary school reading level and contains far more information than my students need for this project. We talk about some of the ways that reading nonfiction is different from reading fiction, and students practice skills like skimming and summarizing to find relevant information.

The final product is a short oral presentation to the class. Students use a world map to take notes about where different foods were originally grown and grow today, which helps reinforce the geography connections. The kids enjoy learning cool food facts and history information from each other, and it is a great beginning of the year intro to research.

Do you teach about food or the geography of food with your students? Do you have other favorite resources?

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday Challenge is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and is a weekly roundup of educator blogs that are sharing nonfiction picture books.

Teaching Geography with Poetry

Geography is our first big social studies topic of the year, and I have found that poems are an invaluable resource in our unit. Many of my favorite geography poems come from A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme by J. Patrick Lewis.

This week, we shared three different poems from the book: the opening poem called Places and Names: a Traveler's Guide, The Circle and the Poles, and my personal favorite, How to Tell Latitude from Longitude. If you are a teacher who does anything related to latitude and longitude with students, you need to share this poem. Immediately, if possible. It is so short, so catchy, and so useful.

Screen shot from SmartNotebook, showing my added drawings of the two

My students usually laugh at the poem and especially the word "flatitude," but I always smile about how many times during the rest of that lesson and the ones that follow do I hear mutterings of "latitude, flatitude" as students lean on the poem to help them remember which is which.

How do you integrate poetry?

This week's Poetry Friday Roundup is being curated by Amy at The Poem Farm. See the whole list of hosts at Poetry Friday by Kitlitosphere.

Around the World in a Single Book - part 3: specific aspects of culture

This post is the third in our series about books focused on world geography and world cultures. Part 1 focused on books about children around the world, and part 2 focused on books about cultures around the world. This post will cover books about specific aspects of culture around the world: languages, schools and libraries, and more.

Books about Languages around the World

Hello World! Greetings in 42 Languages around the Globe! by Manya Stojic. This charming little book features full-page paintings of children around the world saying hello. Each greeting is spelled out and written phonetically and includes the language of origin. My main complaint about this book is that I would have liked to how "hello" is written in each language as well, rather than just using the roman alphabet for all of them. (H/T Carrie at There is a Book for That.)

Animals Speak by Lila Prap. This book takes a different tactic, introducing the reader to the different sounds made by animals. The book includes 14 different animals across 41 languages. Only a few languages are included for each animal within the book itself, but you can read all the variations in the end papers. Students love sounding out all of the different sounds and trying their own hand at spelling out what they hear from various animals. I appreciate that this book does include the actual scripts for different languages, but the "pronunciation guide" is not necessary accurate. (The French duck sound is spelled coin in French but is pronounced more like KWA than the COYN that an English speaker would expect from that spelling. A minor point.) (T/P High Variance.)

(If your students really like the idea of animal noises in different languages, there is a super cute series of posters designed by artist James Chapman that were a big hit with my students last year. Click here to see the article and posters.)

Books about Schools and Libraries around the World

My Librarian is a Camel: how books are brought to children around the world by Margriet Ruurs. This book highlights interesting and unusual libraries around the world, with a focus on the importance of books and access to books for children (and adults). Each two-page spread about a country contains photographs of one or more libraries, as well as facts about the country itself. I use this book near the beginning of the year to help my students realize how lucky they are to be constantly surrounded by books at school and at our local public libraries, Little Free Libraries, and Bookmobiles.

My School in the Rain Forest: how children attend school around the world also by Margriet Ruurs. This follow-up book takes the same format to explore schools around the world, again illustrated with photographs and facts about the countries. Each school is described through the eyes of a particular student who is also featured in the write-up. Another resource for comparing and contrasting around the world. (H/T Mandy at Enjoy and Embrace Learning.)

Off to Class: incredible and unusual schools around the world by Susan Hughes. As the title suggests, this book provides a look at a variety of schools around the world, with a focus on unusual schools or school situations across three broad categories - Working with the Environment, No School? No Way!, and One Size Doesn't Fit All. Each school has a two-page spread with photographs and several paragraphs of information about the school. Many also have an interview with an individual student from the school. This book is pitched a little older than the two books above and would be suitable for upper-elementary and middle school students. (H/T Linda at Teacher Dance.)

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday Challenge is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and is a weekly roundup of educator blogs that are sharing nonfiction picture books. Click the link to check out other nonfiction posts.

Around the World in a Single Book - part 2: cultures in general

This post is the second in our series about books focused on world geography and world cultures. Part 1 focused on books about children around the world. This post will cover books that are focused more generally around cultures around the world. Part 3 focuses on books about languages and schools around the world.

Books about Cultures around the World

 

How People Live by DK Publishing and People Around the World by Anthony Mason. These very similar books are organized geographically. How People Live then focuses on different groups of people by culture, while People Around the World focuses on different groups of people by country or subcontinent. Both books share facts and photographs about people, their lives, and their culture.

How People Live has a great two-page overview about each continent with different facts and statistics. I usually start a new continent unit by reading through the facts and giving the students a chance to guess about the statistics (such as the most commonly spoken languages or the country with the highest population). It tends to build a lot of excitement for learning more about each continent.

If You Lived Here: Houses of the World by Giles Laroche. This book features fascinating cut-paper illustrations of houses around the world and throughout history. Each two-page spread contains a brief write-up about the house, its location, the time period, the types of materials used, and a fascinating fact. This could be a good resource for working on comparing and contrasting or discussing the influence of the environment on housing design and function. (The focus of a book like this is, of course, on houses that are unusual or unique, so it is worth adding to the discussion that many of these houses would not be considered typical for either the time or the location featured.)

 

This series of books by photographer Peter Menzel is a fascinating look at people around the world that is suitable for older children (perhaps late elementary school and up). Material World: a global family portrait is a series about families around the world who are photographed with the entire contents of their houses in a single image. Each family was chosen for their similarity to the statistical "average" family in that country. This is a fascinating, albeit painful, look at inequality and wealth around the world. What the World Eats follows a similar premise, photographing families around the world with a week's worth of food. (This is the children's version of Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.) Comparative information is provided about recipes and costs, as well as facts about the country. This book is again a stark reminder of food shortage and inequality around the world. Powerful books, but they may be a little too much reality for younger students.

Bread, Bread, Bread by Ann Morris, photographs by Ken Heyman. This short picture book extolls the wonders of bread around the world, illustrated with photographs of children and adults around the world, as they make, sell, and eat bread in its many various forms. The text is very short and basic, which may make even middle elementary school kids think of this as a "baby" book, but it could work as a quick read aloud to generate conversation. (Again, same nitpick I have mentioned before, but the photographs are only identified as to country of origin in the back of the book, which is also where the captions are located.) This book is one in a series of "around the world" style books by this author-photographer duo. Other titles include Houses and Homes (Around the World); Hats, Hats, Hats; Tools; Loving (Around the World); and Shoes, Shoes, Shoes. (H/T Mandy at Enjoy and Embrace Learning.)

Be My Neighbor by Maya Ajmera and John D. Ivanko. This book focuses on different aspects of neighborhoods and communities around the world. Each two-page spread features a different aspect including houses, schools, playgrounds, and many more. The text is a little bit generic and short, and the pictures are starting to look dated. This book would be a great concept for someone to update for older readers. (H/T Carrie at There is a Book for That.)

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday Challenge is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and is a weekly roundup of educator blogs that are sharing nonfiction picture books. Click the link to check out other nonfiction posts.

Around the World in a Single Book - part 1: children

Our Social Studies curriculum for third grade centers around world geography and world cultures, so I am always on the lookout for authentic books about children around the world. This post features some of my favorite books that teach kids about other children and cultures around the world. (Follow up posts will cover books that teach about cultures in general and books about specific aspects of cultures around the world.)

Books about Children around the World

Children Just Like Me series (1995) by Barnabas and Anabel Kindersley. Children Just Like Me is the first book in a growing series of books by husband-and-wife photographers-and-writers Barnabas and Anabel Kindersley. In cooperation with UNICEF, they have traveled around the world interviewing and photographing children and their families. This book features one or two page spreads about individual children from different countries, including information about their hobbies, families, favorite foods, schools, hopes for the future, and much more. My students love learning about the kids and seeing a glimpse of their lives.

 

The Kindersleys have since branched out and created a whole series of books. Children Just Like Me: Celebrations! (1997) features holidays and celebrations around the world, organized seasonally. Again, information about each holiday is shared through the eyes of an individual child. Children Just Like Me: Our Favorite Stories is a collection of folktales from around the world. There are also continent specific versions of the books available, including Children of Europe, Children of Africa and Neighboring Countries, and Children of the Americas.

These books make great jumping off points for learning about a specific country or culture but also for discussing point of view and perspective. We often look at the children from the US (New York, Illinois, New Mexico, California, and Alaska) to talk about how their perspectives on the US are the same or different from our own. This helps students to see how it is just as impossible for one child to represent the whole of the US as it is for one child to represent the whole of Botswana or the whole of Africa. This is also a great beginning of the year book to share and then have students make their own "Children Just Like Me" pages as a way to build classroom community.

 

Another great UNICEF book series is the "A __ Like Mine" series. These books shift the focus from individual children and are instead organized more by topic (but each topic often features specific children). This series covers heavier topics and may be more suitable for middle-to-late elementary students. A Life Like Mine: how children live around the world (2002) is organized around four major topics: survival, development, protection, and participation. The book shares a lot of facts, both positive and negative, about children and children's issues in the world today. A School Like Mine: a unique celebration of schools around the world (2007) introduces readers to different schools around the world, organized by continent, and opens with a brief discussion of UNICEF's work to promote schools and "schools in a box."

 

A Faith Like Mine (2005) begins with several chapters about faith and religion in general and then has sections about many world religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and shorter chapters on several others. The photographs makes this an engaging book for children, and this is a great companion to Mary Pope Osbourne's informative One World, Many Religions: the ways we worship.  

One World, One Day (2009) by Barbara Kerley is a photographic journey around the course of a single day throughout the world. The emphasis is on children and their daily routines, and the book provides significant opportunities for discussion as multiple different versions and views are provided of basic tasks like breakfast or going to school. The end of the book includes details from the photographers about the images. (My one nitpick about this book is that the pictures are unlabeled until the footnotes at the end. I wish at least the countries were identified on each page.)

This post is just a quick look at some of my favorite books for discussing children around the world. The next parts to this series will look at other "around the world" books that focus on cultures in general and on different aspects of cultures.

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday Challenge is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and is a weekly roundup of educator blogs that are sharing nonfiction picture books. Click the link to check out other nonfiction posts.